Slowtrain

Well, yes, quite true. But I'm not sure what in this particular thread indicates that...? Or is it an overall reaction?

WHat does that have to do with anything? I have no problem with mercs getting killed, injured, requiring healing. What are you talkign about? Obviously you're seeing what you want to see. I never reload for any reason. I quit and start a new game from scratch rather.

Was this your original point? As far as the subsection of the thread goes?

k. First off let me set the record straight. I play Jag 2 as it was intended to be played: I insure my mercs; play expert level; if a merc dies they are gone for good; if my IMP dies its game over. If one of my mercs suffers one of the stat hits, which doesn't happen too often cause my mercs raely take damage, I either tough it out or quit the game and start a new one. It still annoys the crap out of me because its a totally useless game feature. And yeah, if I've spent 30 points at IMP giving my merc an 85 agility and he loses thirty point of it in the first battle with no way of getting it back, then yeah, its a forced reload. Or in my case a quit and start new game. I'm not denying the high quality of Jag 2 which is all the more reason why that particular feature irritates me.

umm right, but he was talking ABOUT me. I was merely explaining why I choose to address only part of his post. Not that I had to, but I felt he had a valid point. edit: Upon rereading I see that you in fact may be right. *falls upon sword*

No not really. You've got forty mercs at AIm and another 6 or so at MERC. Once a few of them get cracked down from 80 or so agility to 30 or 40 agility, there' not much point in playing anymore. edit: I should clarify be aying that it is a "forced reload" in essense. Technically you could keep playing but what's the point? I'd rather just suffer te indignity of having Magic dropped by a headshot and reload rather than a goofy *Magic looses 29 agility*. I mean what's the point?

ha awesome. I've got a billion of those. Like in Jag 2, when your mercs get hit by a damaging shot they will sometimes lose points off AGILITY, DEXTERITY, WISDOM etc. Stats which are impossible to increase for all intents and purposes, and there's no real way to gain back a loss of twenty dexterity points. SO bascially its a forced reload unless you are happy with your mercs slowly losing their physicial stats as the campaign progresses. Forced reloads suck, especially reoccurring forced reloads that you have no way of preventing and offer absolutely no gameplay feature except annoyance. Its totally stupid and really irriitates me and I have no idea what Ian Currie and the sir tech devs were thinking with that. grrr. ah I feel better now.

Josh needs to rebalance his skills at his next level up.

umm because of the oft used argument that having a world without time limits makes the world feel less real and therefore less immersive. Frankly, BG2 was not less immersive because I could take my own sweet time before finding Imoen. Otoh, It WAS less immersive because it forced me to recuse a charcter I hated. GO LINEAR STORY LINE GO!!!! immersive, yeah. that's a cool meaningless word.

Speakign of awesome game features that woould make the gameworld feel more alive and vibrant, I think all pcs and npcs should be forced to move their bowels at least once a day. Imagine the awesomely realistic party issues of that. w00t! And if you fail to clean up properly afterwards, wham, chr penalty. awesome. totally. more realizm plz.

Using the console to get the katana early seems a bit to defeat the purpose of a crpg. Much like making a beeline to get the APA in Fallout2. Pretty weird way of enjoying a game.

Games should not have timers for victory. Small time limits within the overall context of the game is fine, but its a FREAKING GAME. It is not the real world. People play games at their own rate and their own speed. I tend to play very slowly, usually doubling or triplinng the average "estimated" playthrough time. If I am forced to rush, I'm not going to enjoy the game. And it doesn't make it anymore "realsitc" or "alive" either. Its just makes it rushed. If you really want to make a game alive, reduce the stupid scirpted sequences and cutscenes and ridiculos dialouge and make a game world that is more like a dynamic campaign on a flight sim. Random people going about their business with whom you may or may not interact.

I think the IE games still look fine. A little big when you have to play them in 640*480, but still totally acceptable. I always find that 2d games age quite well in terms of visuals.

Did you write dialogue for the whole game or was each section of the game developed by a different developer who was responsbile for all the dialogue? I thought the dialogue was fine personally, maybe I'm not the best judge of that though, since I don't criticize dialogue unless there is too much of it.

Not a good comparison. Movies have no interaction between player and character. WIth a movie yu can't chnage anything or have it do anything different, except watch it in a different location or with different people. True some games tend to be more like movies in that sense, but even in a vbery linear cinematic game, you are usually doing something interctive as the game player.

EVen the words Returning Frost Dart make me somewhat gassy. Also Aurilite Ice Axe. Also tiny after tiny rooms CRAMMED FULL OF 300 &@*% ENEMIES WHO ALL LOOK EXTACTLY THE SAME. Gothmog the barbarian says: Why the $*#@ do we keep opening these doors? Because we're adventuers and that's what adventurers do! meh. Where's my tribble got to now anyway?

AS long as the leveling is fun and intersting and gives me stuff to think about, I don't need dialogue. I can't imagine enhanced dialogue or a weepy arch-villian making the Ice Palace any more palatable.

Its better to be paid.

IWD2 has grown on me over the years. Although I still can't say I love it; it does have its moments. Which I think shows its major flaw: inconsistency and a lack of overarching direction. Some levels like the attack on the Horde fortress are pretty cool; others like the Ice Palace are just ghastly. I did enjoy the 3e rules, which added some development time to the game, although I would have liked to have seen some of the skills and feats made more useful in the game. The set combat pieces were a bit reptetive in places, and there was a a lot of: fight big battle, rest; fight big battle, rest; fight big battle; rest, rine and repeat. I would have preferred more varied pacing to the combat. But still there was a lot to like. God knows, I played it enough, both SP and MP. lewl. edit: added some screenies

That dang thing always freaked me out. Beaten to death with a severed limb. Not gross, but somewhat insulting.

You'd be a high speed high damage and INVISIBLE death machine. lewl.

I loved all the environmental aspects of MW in terms of the landscape. Traveling between islands, looking for gaps in an impasssable cliff face, swimming through the underwater grottos. A lot of my characters were built around this very aspect of the game. SOme were waterwalkers or waterbreathers, some were flyers, some had no magic but were very athletic and ran and swam and jumped everywhere. I've never played a game that had as gameplay enhancing environment as MW did. I hope Oblivion continues this.

If I am actually killing him or sparing him then it IS the interactive gameplay that changes the gameworld. If I am telling someone to kill him and they kill him, then great the gameworld's changed but its not like I did anythign interesting toward that end. ALl I did was push the button. Not too interesting, eh?

Dude, its a game. There are no real consequences. There is only fun and entertainment.. ANd if you are really bent on imitating a world of "real" consequences just play without ever saving Then you'll find MW is chock full of real conseqeunces. AS in death and 50 hours of gameplay down the tubes. It depends. does this great conversational node just lead to another conversational node, or, god forbid, a cutscene? IF so than it just MOTS spoonfed designer crap. If a conversational node actually lead to some cool gameplay then that would be wort something. ALl I ask of games is that they give me an experience I can't get elsewhere.